My school district is allowing the principals in each school to decide if the speech will be shown to students. I think (maybe) each teacher will decide.
We are going to watch it. We have logistical issues. Our internet pipe can't handle 8 schools streaming at once online. The tv broadcast is on CSPAN which we no longer get in our classrooms because it is only availabel with a digital cable box. It looks like we are going to capture it live and distribute it via file shares to the schools to watch after the fact on the LAN. I hope it is worth all this work! Every social studies class is watching it and taking part in the pre and post activities.
The press is certainly making a big deal about it. You asked if its worth the trouble, I guess if there is anything that can be done to motivate students to do their best and to strive to improve, than it's worth it. We'll see.
The Wall Street Journal this morn takes on many of the conservatives (you did know the WSJ is conservative?) who lambaste the President for this. I agree with them and actually find their issues with the ed department as being a bit picky.
My hope is (and the site supports this) that the Presidents speech will build on candidate Obams's Fathers Day speech.
This President is particularly young, under-educated in the affairs of the world, and over-confident of the zealous ideologies he and his buds espouse. Worse and more worrisome, 85+% of teachers routinely vote Democrat, regardless of the person or issue at hand.
That said, respect for the President is a thing we should teach. So is being careful to teach kids to look beyond the feel-good whenever we peak at law. (Health-care in particular is an area where teachers need to do some serious listening about economics). In short, I like the lead-up here.
And I pray this President keeps his eyes (and ours) on education and fight for the urban poor.
Permalink Reply by Kev on September 4, 2009 at 8:36am
I have really mixed feelings on this whole thing. I'll come right out and say I'm not an Obama supporter but I'm trying not to make that an issue. (I did show the inauguration without hesitation or concern).
On first glance it shouldn't be odd that a president makes an address to students. Flat out whether I approve of the guy's policies or not he is the president. It just seems so strange, as mentioned above, that this seems to be about kids helping him and his vision, not about helping the country based at least on the materials we've seen. Kennedy's "Ask Not" was truly about country, it is unsettling that I'd even doubt that this one will be.I think this is one of those things I'd have to preview before showing live and that saddens me. I wish I could trust our government to do right by our kids but I can't. As a Californian I can say I sure wouldn't show an address by my governor to my kids without watching it either.
I find it disappointing that you feel the need to edit our president. This only makes the prejudices of those who disagree with him appear right. Part of my job as a teacher is to teach students to listen to both sides of a position before judging. As President, he has earned the right to address our students as have past presidents. In fact, I found this speech slightly less slanted than the past two presidents who spoke at schools. They were right to do so. Listen to their talks at C-Span.org As a Republican, I'm distressed by this lack of common respect for each other.
I was unable to show this live, and technology problems prevented showing it later in the day. I will show it tomorrow.
This may go farther than you want. But we're all adults here, right? Particularly for those of you involved in HS Social Studies...
I mention above the Presidents Fathers Day speech. There are some stats you should know to understand where he is coming from:
♦ Half of all Black American students leave high school without a diploma.
♦ Two fifths of all students in cities like Cleveland, Columbus, and Philadelphia don’t graduate.
In cities such as Detroit, only one in three black males earns a high school diploma. It is not the case that most of these kids were academic failures.
Again, thank you very very much for providing this background.
I study education statistics all of the time and the dropout and "under-educated" problem is hugh. Everyone may not realize that so few students graduate in many cities around the country.
Perhaps the Obama administration made a mistake by providing lesson plans without releasing at least an outline of the speech itself. If I turned that "assignment" into my education professors my grade wouldn't be much better than a D+! I understand the text of the speech is to be released Monday, but that is cutting is close for those who are contemplating whether to view the event in school or not.
The original lesson plan I saw was tailored for grades Pre-K through 6. One point was for students to write a letter to themselves explaining how they could help president Obama. Last time I checked most Kindergarteners had trouble writing word greater than three letters.
Our 3-5 building is watching President Obama's speech. While it will create a "break" in the routine of the classroom (we started school last week), one more day will proabably not make a big difference. Although the notice to parents regarding our plan went out on Friday afternoon and I'm wondering if voice mail is capturing thumbs down.
The files that the President's office put out regarding follow up activities was helpful. I like the idea of the students (and the teahcers) making personal goal posters. They may come in as ready reminders to assist in classroom management. In the big picture of things, I always say school doesn't "officially" begin until picture day!